We Are The Weirdos 2019

We Are The Weirdos 2019, woman-directed shorts presented by The Final Girls feminist film collective, showcases the most exciting new female voices in genre cinema from around the world.

Be Very Afraid

by Alexa Dalby

We Are The Weirdos
4.0 out of 5.0 stars

CAUTION: Here be spoilers

All these women filmmakers are horrifically talented. We Are The Weirdos is a cleverly curated genre programme of nine short horror films made by women that visualises the everyday dangers that women are in, simply by being women.

Satisfyingly, the films also show women sometimes taking back control in an unexpected way (Catcalls, whose suspense gave me goose pimples), or Puppet Master, which put disturbing images in my mind’s eye that I still can’t forget).

But growing up female is where the horrors start, either externalised (Blood Runs Down, a Southern-gothic horror that’s the reverse side of Beasts of the Southern Wild), or internalised and unresolved from childhood (Cerulia) – or both frighteningly at once (Goodnight).

Three out of the nine films are animations – four, if you count a beautifully shot still-frame work (#EatPretty) – used as another way of representing psychological horror. Five are about children or childhood memories. The intriguing The Lady from 406 goes deep into the psyche and fantasy of a mother’s grief. Hair Wolf is a witty revelation of the dangers of white appropriation of black culture. And in the final short, Goodnight, an apparently innocent family scene is open-ended enough to leave you wondering – and full of dread.

We Are The Weirdos 2019 is in cinemas and touring the country now, it’s too good to miss and it’s not just for horror fans. See the link below for details of dates and venues.

Catcalls
Dir. Kate Dolan